Purple toothwort

Description

Lathraea clandestina, the purple toothwort also known as clandestine in France, is a western European species of toothwort: a parasitic plant genus. L. clandestina grows preferentially in wet or fresh woodlands of valley bottoms, usually near streams where it parasitizes the roots of various plants: especially the deciduous trees Populus and Salix (poplars and willows). Purple toothwort also has been recorded as parasitising a wide range of other plants, including: Acer, Alnus, Buxus, Carpinus, Corylus, Juglans, Metasequoia, Quercus, Rhododendron, Taxus and even Gunner It is a holoparasite, which has neither leaves nor chlorophyll and draws its food from the roots of its hosts via suckers.